I'll start by saying that I'm confident my experience and those of my colleagues in the West Chicago location is probably radically different from that of my colleagues in other Epsilon offices. I believe that the vision of this company and the top leadership. The company recently went through a rebranding that, I believe, is strong, fresh and would make me proud to work there. The company is healthy financially, and for the most part, the benefits are strong.

Cons

I was part of the West Chicago location, formerly Aspen Marketing Services. This is part of the "agency" arm of Epsilon, which had very little to do with the data brokerage identity of the company. I believe that there are systemic fault lines in this organization that make it the worst work environment I've ever experienced. If you are advanced in your career and have any desire to perform at a strategic level, this is not the job for you. The vision of my role that was painted during the interview process could not be more opposite than my actual experience.

Let's get the basic flaws out of the way: The PTO allocation was a far cry from what I'd expect at my level of experience or from experience in other agencies. The work environment is uninspiring and it's in a "warehouse row" location in the middle of nowhere. I knew about these things and chose to overlook them because I was led to believe that I would have a role that was strategic and at a higher level of leadership. Don't fall for this: It is not true!

The senior leaders (at least in this location) have limited to no exposure to anyone above the SVP level (our immediate managers). For someone like me who had a personal relationship with the CEO of my previous organization, I found this to be disconcerting. In addition, the company is not effective in teaching all of us what else Epsilon as a massive data company has to offer clients. While I knew that I worked for a data company, I knew very little about what resources I had to provide clients to help improve their business.

I reported to one of the top "leaders" in the company. My manager created a culture of fear and resentment by publicly berating me and other members of the team, agreeing to impossible demands and then punishing us for failing to achieve them, and making autocratic decisions but then assigning blame to me and other team members when things fell apart, rather than taking responsibility for their own decisions and hand in the end result.

The most senior members of the team (including myself) are regularly expected to perform extremely tactical duties, which often are consuming due to the lack of "bench" support on the team. Even worse, when performing these tasks three levels beneath us, executive leadership micromanages to the point that it's impossible not to regularly doubt one's own ability. I was never supported as a leader by my manager but rather constantly contradicted, refuted and screamed at publicly, demolishing any leadership credibility. When combined with the reality of performing the day-to-day role of an AE, it is unfathomable that I was still expected to play a leadership role and ultimately held responsible for the performance of the team.

This work environment is toxic and does not facilitate strong performance. If I could give this company zero stars, I would. I wouldn't recommend this company to my worst enemy and deeply regret making the decision to work there.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Be aware of the people you have in top positions. There is some serious potential for leadership improvement, if it's even possible in this case. People are leaving both voluntarily and involuntarily - and if they haven't left, yet, you can be sure they want to.

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